Itinerary:
- Breakfast at T. Kawamoto Store
- Hilo Farmers Market
- Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens
- Mauna Loa Macadamia Nuts Self Guided Tour
- Akaka Falls
- Lunch at TEX Drive In
- Waipo Valley Look out (didn't go as we were too tired)
- Check in at Fairmont Orchid Hotel
This morning, we checked out of our Hilo hotel to head to the other side of the island. Before we leave Hilo, we wanted to check out a few other spots.
The pros of staying at Hilo for a couple of days is that it is not only a shorter drive to the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park but we get to go more in depth and explore some of the Hilo sights. The cons are that we have to change hotel and it's more expensive for rental car as the pickup and drop off is at different location. But I still highly recommend that you stay a couple of days at Hilo as this city is quite interesting.
At check out, I asked the staff for breakfast recommendation and she recommended Ken's House of Pancakes. Since we already tried this place and didn't really like it, I decided to go to one of the breakfast joints that I have previously looked at in Yelp. It's the T. Kawamoto Store. Again, it's on the same street as Cafe 100 and Restaurant Kenichi. It's seemed that most of the highly rated restaurants are on this street, which is very close to the hotel.
After parking our car, we went inside T. Kawamoto Store. It's a mom and pop shop with very few decor. We went to the front and was asked to pick the food that was placed on the counter covered by glass. We randomly picked some dishes and most of them turned out very good especially the spam musubi and Korean chicken.The prices was so cheap as well.
There are no tables and chairs to eat inside the store but there is 1 bench, which we sat and ate our breakfast. After finishing our breakfast, we decided to drop by the Hilo Farmers Market since it was close by. The farmers market is open daily but have a lot more vendors on Wednesday and Saturday. Since it was Tuesday, there had about 30 to 40 vendors at the farmers market, which was sufficient for me. All I really wanted was some tropical fruits :-)
I bought my favorite Lychee for 1/4 the price that I paid at Foodland in Maui. Now that I think of it, I should have bought more because when we get to the west side of the island, prices are double. If only I knew beforehand.
After the farmers market, we walked towards the downtown. We didn't spend too much time as we had to go to the rental car and exchange the car since Mason was complaining about a bad smell from the back seat.
After exchanging the car at the rental car near the airport, we made our way to Panaewa Rainforest Zoo & Gardens. This is a free admission zoo but please make a donation to help keep the zoo running. There is a donation box right by the entrance.
We saw some Nene, peacocks, emu, pigs, goats, turtles and tigers. Since this is a pretty small zoo, there are no elephants or giraffes.
There are many different animal benches around the zoo which Madison wanted to take a picture with each one.
While Mason only wants to take 1 picture with
There is also a kids playground which my kids love to play in.
Overall, we had a great time at this zoo.
Next, we decided to go to Mauna Loa macadamia nuts factory for the self guided tour since it was less than 10 minutes away from the zoo. I don't recommend going to the factory unless it was on the way. There is a video that shows you how they make their products and you can see the workers working through a glass window.
We didn't buy any products from the store as it wasn't cheaper than other stores and we still have a few stopovers before the hotel. Won't want the chocolate to melt inside the car.
We continue our journey to Akaka Falls which we heard was one of the best waterfalls in Big Island. There is parking inside the park for $5 per car or you can park right outside and enter the park by foot for $1 per person. The kids were tired by this time, so we parked inside the park. It was a short walk to see the falls.
There is also another falls (Kahuna Falls) near it but we couldn't go through the trail due to damage caused by a tree hazard mitigation project.
Next, we decided to go to Waipo Valley Lookout. Along the way, I was looking for restaurant to have lunch as it was getting late. While Anthony was driving on the highway, I spotted a restaurant and had him made a turn to the restaurant. It's the TEX drive in. Like its name, you can order food through the drive in or just go inside the restaurant.
We decided to eat inside the restaurant and take a break as we have been to many different places since morning. TEX drive in is famous for their malasadas and if you are lucky you can see they make it through the glass windows inside the restaurant. We saw the lady frying the malasadas while we were there.
Since we haven't had lunch, so we also ordered lunch from here. I don't recommend getting lunch from here unless you are really hungry.
But you definitely have to try their malasadas as it is one of the best that I have had. Their malasadas were hot, soft and puffy. Unless you like sweet things, I would recommend you get the plain one. Anthony had the guava filling malasadas and it was just too sweet for me. The plain one that I had was perfect.
After lunch, Anthony was feeling a little tired after all the driving, so we decided to skip Waipo Valley lookout and head straight to the hotel. On the way there, it started raining and we could barely see the road before us.
After 50 minutes or so of driving, we finally reached our hotel.
The kids wanted to swim again, so we took them to the pools.
There is a torch lighting ceremony every evening and we were lucky to see that on our first night there.
Sea turtles reside on the hotel beach and we were lucky to see a few.
The hotel has a nice snorkeling area and offers free snorkeling gear to guest.
After swimming, it was dark, so we had dinner at their poolside restaurant. It was pretty dark there and we can barely see our food, so no pictures were taken. Don't want my flash to scare other guests there.
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